


eighteen years // the life and times of marceline abadeer

by UnidentifiedFroggy



Series: eighteen years // the life and times of marceline abadeer [1]
Category: Adventure Time
Genre: Abusive Parents, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Human, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Bubbline, Bullying, Canon Lesbian Relationship, Child Abuse, Cutting, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Homophobia, Hurt/Comfort, Running Away, Self-Harm, Suicide Attempt, this is hot garbage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-17
Updated: 2020-10-17
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:15:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 16,940
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27060295
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UnidentifiedFroggy/pseuds/UnidentifiedFroggy
Summary: Marceline's life is a series of ups and downs and I can't write descriptionsTrigger warnings in the tags. This is not good
Relationships: Betty Grof/Ice King | Simon Petrikov, Finn The Human & Marceline, Finn the Human & Jake the Dog, Finn the Human/Huntress Wizard, Ice King | Simon Petrikov & Marceline, Princess Bubblegum & Finn the Human & Jake the Dog & Marceline, Princess Bubblegum/Marceline
Series: eighteen years // the life and times of marceline abadeer [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1974976
Comments: 7
Kudos: 62





	eighteen years // the life and times of marceline abadeer

**Author's Note:**

> uuuuuuuh this is my first time actually publishing fanfic and this is probably very bad.

When Marceline Abadeer is born her parents cry with joy. Gone are their constant fights and bickering, only tender moments - smiles and kisses and murmured "I love you"s in the early hours of the morning as their infant child lies cradled in her mother's arms. Her father is kind and caring, and for a moment her mother believes that perhaps they can salvage their wreck of a marriage and rekindle the spark that was extinguished long ago. Deep down she knows it's a fantasy, but she can't resist nonetheless. It doesn't last. They tiptoe around each other for months, until she finally breaks.

-

Marceline is one when she and her mother leave. It's the dead of night and Marcy is in her arms as the car disappears into the blanket of darkness, her husband sleeping soundly. Bags of clothes and possessions, hurriedly packed and thrown in the back of the car, come together as she speeds off into the distance. All that's left for her husband is a note scrawled at midnight and taped to the fridge. She knows he'll be pissed when he wakes up, but she doesn't plan to be in the state to see it. They drive for hours, eventually stopping at a motel just past the state border. It's cheap and the carpets smell like cat piss but it's better than back "home." Marceline's mother doesn't regret a thing.

Hunson doesn't bother chasing after them, getting into a legal dispute he's bound to lose. He just cries and hopes. He's sure he'll see his little girl someday - that's what he's living on. She's almost grateful to him for that, giving her no more trouble after all the things he's done. They stay in a series of motels and shitty flats, moving from house to house once, twice, three times a month. Always moving. Never looking back. It's a motto she hopes her daughter will learn to live by. Some days she regrets this, the life that she's created for herself, as she watches little baby Marceline drool in her sleep, but she knows it's too late to turn back.

-

Marceline is two when they get the mobile home. A tear comes to her mother's eye as she watches the 2-year old run around with glee in her new home, the cupcake her mother procured sitting forgotten in favour of the much more exciting "birthday present". It still breaks her heart when Marceline begins packing a month or so later, the routine drilled into her tiny little brain. The look of pure, unadulterated joy when she learns they won't be moving out is the happiest she has ever seen her daughter.

Marceline is also two when she first encounters Bonnibel Bubblegum. It's brief, and she won't remember it until reminiscing many years after. The older girl is three at the time, only a couple months older than Marceline, desperately clinging to her mother at the charity event. Her mother thinks it's laughable, a pity example of the rich trying to pretend that they care, and her anger is thinly veiled when their mobile home is visited by charity workers. All Marcy can focus on is the pink haired little girl, thinly veiling her enthusiasm. Bonnibel laughs awkwardly at the tiny girl staring at her, still not grown up enough to do anything else, as she clings to her mother, who seems to tower over her, and for that matter everyone else in the room.

But in that moment, nothing else matters to Marcy other than the other child's entrancing pink hair. She's enchanted by it. Her mother is not. The conversation is short and snappy, and neither woman looks happy after the exchange. Bonnibel leaves, and so does her mother. She doesn't close the door behind her, and her mother looks out the door emptily for a couple seconds. Marcy runs outside, but she can't bring herself to stop the little girl. And as the pale girl will soon find out, there's nothing but disappointment and the disappearing figure of Ms. Bubblegum in the distance.

-

When Marcy is three she plays with other children for the first time. As her little girl runs around the playground with the other kids, Marcy’s mother has a lump in her throat and she’s as stressed as she’s ever been but she’s got to keep reassuring herself that everything will be fine, for Marceline’s sake. She sees a tall, dark haired man walk toward the playground, his face away from hers, and her heart leaps into her throat, assuming the worst, and she stiffens up, only relaxing as he picks up a little boy and spins him around. She breathes out slowly. It’s not Hunson. Marcy is ok. She needs to relax.

When Marceline trips and falls, she sits up to try and help her little girl, but before she knows it Marcy is up and running once again, laughing and playing and in that split second she wonders if everything will be okay, and that Marceline will be fine. She smiles and breathes in, and breathes out. Her phone buzzes, and instinctively she checks it. Everything will be fine, she reminds herself. And then she sees who the message is from.

Marceline is three when she sees her father again. He’s older, and he’s sadder. His face is gaunt, hollow almost. He doesn’t look like he’s doing well, and his suit adds to the allusion. Her mother doesn’t buy it one bit. Marceline doesn’t hear what they’re saying, she’s too busy going back to her drawings, but she hears the word custody. She doesn’t know what custody means. She just wants Mama and Papi to love each other again. Her father leaves curtly, but not before giving his daughter as much love as her mother will let him, embracing his child. Hunson leaves with a smile on his face.

Marcy’s mother doesn’t say much that night. She tells Marceline to wish her new friends goodbye when they see them tomorrow at the playground. They leave the next night, the mobile home rattling along as they get out of the state, the region even. Marceline doesn’t know how many days it's been when they next stop, but she knows her mother seems on edge. It makes her unhappy, but she can’t do anything about it. The trailer is quiet that night, and Marceline cries herself to sleep. 

-

When Marceline turns four, her mother sings her a lullaby she calls “Everything Stays”. She seems mellow, happy even, a feeling Marceline hasn’t recognised in her mother since...well, the young girl doesn’t know how long, but she can’t remember it recently. She gets a tiny guitar for her birthday and she plays it endlessly, out of tune nonsense songs filling the walls of their tiny home, her little girl passionately singing about guitars and princesses and vampires and nonsense, rocking out to herself. Her mother hopes that this is a sign that things will get better.

The other thing Marceline is obsessed with when she’s four is drawing. She draws on everything she can get her hands on - her legs, her arms, her face, her guitar, her mother, her books, even the walls (she gets told off for that one). It’s her favourite thing to do, second only to strumming on her little pink instrument. She draws guitars and bats and vampires, inspired by a book she read. She’s not scared of the dark - she never has been, and she figures that vampires and stuff fall in line with that. Her mother is a little concerned when the four year old scribbles a skull on the roof, but she can’t bring herself to stop the little girl - she’s having too much fun.

Marcy’s fourth (well, fifth) year of continued existence is the best of her mother’s life. She can finally relax, and she’s ready to learn how. Hunson is gone out of their life, a series of heated email conversations, phone calls and legal consultations made sure of that. Finally, she and her daughter can be at peace. Long nights watching crappy movies, listening to her daughter sing to herself as she doodles all over herself, and living in her own home (with certifiably no cat piss, it’s like heaven.

And unlike most heavens, it doesn’t come crashing down. They live like this through Marceline’s fifth birthday, and nothing changes about their peaceful existence, day after day of naps, reading, music and the magic that comes with raising a child. Marceline didn’t socialise with other children much, and even though it was selfish, her mother didn’t mind. It meant more of her little angel to herself. And with all she’d been through, deep down she felt like she deserved it.

-

Marcy’s first day of school comes when she’s five. She’s never been exposed to other children, if you exclude the pink haired girl and the friends she had for two days. And to be honest, the micro goth is terrified. Her short black hair is tied up in a ponytail and the uniform is stuffy. She’s not allowed to bring her guitar, once pink but now covered in so many scribbles you can’t make out the colour, and her mother says she can’t draw on the walls or the tables, or anyone else for that matter. It’s not something she’s looking forward to in the slightest, but her mother assures her she’ll be alright, and Marceline decides to be brave and runs in happily.

It turns out the rest of the class is just as terrified, and the first few days are an awkward mess, with the class teacher barely able to contain the group of twenty-odd children, all bursting to get out into recess and play on the swings, or draw all over their books, or any of the other odd compulsion one tends to find in Kindergarten-age children. At least, that’s what Marceline would have probably thought about if she wasn’t busy trying to look as unappealing of a friend as possible when recess came.

It mostly worked, seeing as most young children often don’t want to latch onto the girl sitting in the corner with her hands in her tiny pockets. Unfortunately, Finn Mertens was not most people. The little boy awkwardly shuffled up to her, clutching his backpack like a life preserver, wearing a tiny hat that looked like he had a bear on his head, with blonde locks poorly contained by the headwear. Marceline wasn’t interested in any of that though - instead she was looking at the tiny plastic sword he clutched in his little hand.

Finn shyly introduces himself and invites her to play Knights and Princesses, and she agrees, snatching the sword off him and boldly declaring that she will be a great knight. Finn uneasily agrees, unsure of what his role is in the little girl’s game, but soon the two are having a good time, running around and chasing each other with the swords they manage to find in the class’s dress up box. Eventually Marcy picks up a stick and so does Finn and they start dueling with them, at which point the teacher decides to call an end to the game.

Despite it’s abrupt end, Marceline enjoyed the game and she goes home excited and looking forward to school the next day. Her mother smiles as she watches her little girl all grown up. This happens day after day, as Marcy begins to get more and more comfortable in the classroom and the playground, although she doesn’t have many friends. She’s even disappointed when her mother tells her that school doesn’t happen on Saturday and Sunday. She’s never had so much fun.

The next Friday, Marcy brings in her guitar for show and tell, and plays a wicked song (in her humble opinion) that the class loves. At lunch, she and Finn meet up, and he thinks her guitar is the coolest thing in the world. She learns Finn can beatbox, and the two jam together, coming up with all sorts of silly songs. After the sick jam session, it’s time for Marceline’s favourite lesson - music. It was a good day. It was a good year.

-

Marceline’s sixth birthday is uneventful. She and her mother celebrate privately, and she has Finn over to play the next day. The two create a big mess, painting and drawing and jamming out. Marcy’s mother is happy for her daughter. She meets Finn’s parents that day, Joshua and Margaret, when they come to pick the Kindergartener up, stern yet kind parents who she gets along with well. Marceline learns that Finn has two brothers - Jake, who is two years older than he is, and Jermaine, who is five years older than him. Finn describes them like his idols, as if they are the coolest people in the world. Marcy snorts at that. Obviously she was the coolest girl in the world.

Marceline grows up fast that year, shooting up in height and soon towering over Finn. Her mother laughs and makes a joke about how her father was always towering over her, and for the first time in years she doesn't flinch when she says the name Hunson. There's a smile on her face and that puts a smile on Marcy's face. Later that night she tells her daughter the story of how she and her ex-husband met, and how it changed both of their lives. Marceline doesn't ask about what went wrong. She doesn't want to know the unhappy ending to the story.

School comes and goes faster than Marcy knows and soon she's on summer break. Her mother takes her to the beach, and she runs around in the waves and makes castles in the sand. Her mother joins in. They're both happy. Everyone is happy. She has a playdate with Finn during the holidays and she goes to his house. There she meets Jake, Finn's older brother. He's a bit of a jerk towards the two of them but Finn assures Marcy he's really cool. She doesn't exactly believe him but she's having such a good time playing in the sandpit that she can't find it in herself to call him out.

Soon enough school returns and Marceline is a first grader now. She likes being in first grade - it's simple and fun and they get to read stories in class with their teacher, Mrs. Helena. She's different from their Kindergarten teacher but Marcy likes her more. She's in Finn's class this year and the two are the scourges of the classroom, drawing on desks, playing pranks on the other kids and generally causing havoc. In the playground they've advanced past simple Knights and Princesses (or Knights and Knights), and their newest game is called Vampires. Marcy likes it a lot, although Finn says he's scared of vampires. Marceline thinks he's just a chicken. She conveys her feelings and Finn gets upset.

Marcy gets in trouble at school for the first time and she's not happy one bit - her mother comes in and picks her up early, and she's stern about it. Marceline's guitar is taken away and in her six year old brain she tells herself that this is the worst thing that's ever happened to her and that nothing else will ever be as bad as this. She cuts her hair by herself that day, to annoy her mother. It works. The next day, she gets a proper haircut. Marceline decides she likes her hair short.

It's the night before Marcy’s birthday when everything starts going downhill. She's drawing (as she usually is), and her mother is on the couch. She makes a comment about how Marceline's drawing skills have improved and this time it's only barely a white lie. She gets up and stretches, telling her daughter that she's going to go to the store, and not to leave the room. She leaves her phone and takes her wallet. The keys to her car lie on the bench. Marcy waits.

Marcy waits for over an hour. She waits through the loud noise she thinks might be a gunshot and she waits through the sirens outside. She does what her Mama says and she waits. She tells herself that Mama will be back soon and she waits. She tells herself that she's a big (almost) seven year old and everything will be safe. Marcy is six when the police officer opens the door. Marcy is six when she learns what happened.

-

Marceline is seven when she breaks. It starts with a scream, and ends with the little girl crying a river. The clock has just ticked over to midnight. It's her birthday. Marceline doesn't care. All she can focus on is the way her heart feels like it's withering away and it's her fault for waiting and she should have came and found her mother and it's all her fault and it's all her fault and she just can't fucking deal. She cries for three hours straight and she doesn't sleep that night.

The next few days are numb. She doesn't cry. She doesn't laugh. She barely moves. Days go by and she refuses to leave the trailer. Her guitar lies forgotten. Police officers try to coax the seven year old out of the mobile home but their efforts are ultimately unsuccessful. Eventually her father comes. He looks better than he was four years ago but the man is still in shambles. His excitement at seeing his daughter is thinly veiled by a mask of somber mourning. He tells her that she'll be coming to live with him. She doesn't want to leave the mobile home.

Marceline's mother didn't have any family (that she still kept in touch with), and her only known connections were her daughter and her ex-husband. They didn't have a funeral. There was nobody there to mourn for her. Hunson takes her to the airport sixteen days after her mother dies. Marceline wants to look back, but she doesn't. She never wants to come back here and she hopes she never has to.

It's hard to adjust to her new life in Night City. She doesn't go to school, but her father's apartment is so different from the mobile home she loved. She didn't bring anything. She's got nothing to bring. The best way to describe everything about her life would be dull. Her feelings, her relationship with her father, her surroundings, her actions, all of it is dulled. Hunson is always awkward around her and while she knows that deep down the man cares she can't bring herself to give him a shred of pity.

Her father makes her see a therapist who says lovey dovey things and rambles about how a seven year old shouldn't have to go through all this and always, every time, about how sorry she is. Marceline can't stand it. It's bullshit. It's all bullshit. She tells Hunson accordingly. He sends her to her room for her potty mouth and she sulks off. He makes her see a different therapist that week. Marceline goes through eight therapists in the span of two months before her father gives up.

Three months and six days after her mother died Marceline goes back to school. She's got her hair cut short and her hands in her pockets. Her "scary aura" has improved since she was five and this time she's going to make sure that she doesn't have friends this time. She just wants to stay away from all of it. And, fortunately, it works. Even the teachers avoid her, not wanting to deal with the grumpy, menacing first grader.

School ends a month or so later and Marceline spends her days drawing fake tattoos and avoiding her father. If there's one advantage to Hunson's large apartment it's that the damn place has so many nooks and crannies for Marceline to hide in. She deems her father worthy of having dinner with her some nights, only when she hasn't stolen enough from the fridge. He laments her absence and she disappears back into the night.

Eventually he finds where she's been sleeping - a small tunnel leading from her closet to the one in the guest room, her pillow tucked up in a place where she can barely fit. Hunson cries that night and begs his daughter to come out and after a moment of evaluation she agrees. The two watch a bad romance movie that night. Marceline decides that her father isn't that bad, and the two get along considerably better after that. School comes back and the two get closer. Marceline is almost happy. Almost

-

When she turns eight Marceline's dad gives her the coolest thing she's ever seen - a red electric guitar in the shape of an axe. Ever cynical, she plays it off but he hears her raving about it in her room. It's the first time he's ever seen the little girl truly happy since she moved to Night City, although he supposes he can't really call her little anymore - she's not as tall as him but she's shooting up in height. He's pretty sure she's the tallest in her grade at school, but he wouldn't know. She keeps all that from him.

Eight year old Marceline is no more amenable to having friends then she was when she first moved to Night City, and she figures the easiest way to ensure that is to spread some rumours. Who'll want to hang out with the girl they say is a vampire? It doesn’t really work, but people think she’s weird after the fact and in some ways that’s even better. She doesn’t care about what people think about her, and if it makes people avoid her that’s all good news for her. 

School goes on, as it always does, and Marceline begins to fall into a comfortable routine. Get up, get dressed, eat, go to school, attempt to ignore everyone, go home, disappear into her room, eat, sleep. Hunson still drops her to school, even though Marceline insists that she’s a second grader and doesn’t need to be driven to school. He acknowledges that she’s mature for an eight year old kid, but she’s not that mature. Marceline begrudgingly can’t help but agree.

She’s aware that she’s not normal, even if you ignore the social shit. Most second graders don’t stay up late staring at the ceiling. Most second graders aren’t social recluses. Most second graders don’t wish they weren’t alive. Marceline is pretty sure she’s depressed but she knows that eight year olds aren’t that self aware so she tries to ignore it. She tries to ignore a lot of things. She tries to be a normal, carefree eight year old. It doesn’t work. It keeps her up at night. And that just makes things worse.

Life goes on, and Marceline hopes that someday she will be normal. It’s a pipe dream, she’s smart enough to know that (even though she can’t do math). But she still hopes. Marceline’s been thinking a lot recently. Late at night, when she should be doing schoolwork, on the way to school and so on. Thinking about her life, her mother, her father, everything. She misses Finn sometimes, but she’s managed to detach herself. She hopes. She doesn’t really know. She doesn’t know a lot of things and she hates it.

Eventually life takes a pause and summer break hits. Hunson takes Marceline on vacation, and she’s kinda excited. They’re headed to a place called Ooo, and while Marceline thinks she recognises the name she can’t place it. Soon enough she can - she’d recognise those closely knit rooftops and out of place skyscrapers anywhere. This is where she grew up. Marceline immediately regrets letting her father take her. She’d be able to convince him, right.

It’s oddly pleasant being back in the city she hates, but Marceline is unable to settle. Everything she looks at reminds her of her mother. The tightly packed rows of houses that they would drive past on the way to school, the caravan park they stayed in and - she almost breaks into tears as she sees this one - the store where she knows her mother got shot. She thought she’d got past this. She thought she had overcome this, especially without the help of all the stupid therapists. She was obviously wrong.

She sees Finn again. They don’t talk, but as Hunson’s car (it’s black and it looks like a hearse - Marceline hates it) is stopped while it’s owner goes into a store, she sees Finn. He’s not wearing his signature hat and he looks weird without it. Marceline waves. He doesn’t notice her. He’s grown up and she’s shocked at how long his hair is - certainly longer than she ever wants hers to grow. She waves again and this time he notices her and waves back. She sticks out her tongue and it looks like he is laughing. Then Hunson gets back in the car and the misery holiday continues.

Shitty vacation over, Marceline returns to normalcy, but things feel different. She’s even more detached then normal, and can’t bring herself to focus even on her favourite subjects. She only picks up her guitar once or twice a month. She’ll be nine soon. She tells herself it’s time to grow up. Time to get over the past and time to improve herself as a person. She knows that’s silly talk to most eight year olds. She doesn’t care. She wants to do this for herself, and for her mother’s memory - also, she really needs a therapist.

-

Marceline’s giddy fever dreams of self-improvement and moral perfectionism are short-lived. Seeing a therapist is not. Through the rest of her time as an eight year old and past her ninth birthday, she sees a therapist. To be honest, she doesn’t really learn that much new. She’s way too mature than she should be and she’s super fucked up inside. That’s old news, but it’s still nice to have someone to talk to. Someone to vent to. Someone to connect with. It’s not like she can do that with her dad.

She’s started calling Hunson dad now, both mentally and out loud. It feels right. Before it was always Hunson, or more commonly father. Nine year old Marceline wants to patch things up with her father. Nine year old Marceline is mature and responsible. It's time for her to grow up. Her therapist tells her that she's already plenty grown up but she ignores them. What the fuck do they know (she gets scolded again for her potty mouth). Nine year old Marceline should also probably work on her attitude, her father says. She's doubtful.

Marceline breezes through third grade - the work is easy and she's done it all before. Even maths, her worst subject, is easy. It makes her happy, keeping her grades up like she does. She barely notices summer break, it whizzes past and it doesn't really feel any different to school time, she keeps studying just the same. It creates a feeling of contentment. Being lonely and attempting to block out all contact with the rest of the school does not, but she figures it's too late to change that. School is how school always is, and Marceline will live with it. At least that's what she says - it doesn't help that kids have started to get mean. 

What starts as a gradual build up of anger, frustration and generally being pissed off at the world soon begins to gather in worrying intensity. She initially dismisses this, reassuring herself that everything is fine, but it keeps building and building and eventually some fucking kid makes a joke about her mother and she punches him and kicks him in the balls. He cries and Marceline gets a detention. Her father is not happy, but he understands. Turns out the kid's parents are influential in the school and young Marceline is delivered an ultimatum - go to anger management or get expelled. While she briefly considers the second option, starting over with a fresh start sounds nice, she realises the logistical issues and eventually decides to go to anger management.

Anger management therapy is a very different experience from going to Marceline’s regular therapist. She doesn’t like it one bit. At least the therapist is nice. His name is Simon Petrikov and he’s a kindly middle aged man who doesn’t shame Marceline when she refuses to talk to him. They make progress, slowly but surely, week by week. Their session is on a Thursday, just after lunch, and Marceline slowly opens up to the old man. He’s always so nice about it, never pushing too far, always making sure Marceline knows she can stop. Bit by bit, they go over Marceline’s relationship with her dad, the problems switching schools created, all of it.

They even touch on her mother. It’s not for long, and Simon is smart enough to know it’s a touchy subject, but they talk about her - the happy moments: nights on the couch in the mobile home, watching cheesy movies until sunup; receiving her (formerly) pink guitar; drawing on everything she could get her hands on. It’s almost embarrassing now, but everyone was a dumb kid at some point and Marceline has to come to terms with it at some point so she figures she’ll do it now, when she’s comfortable.

Simon is perhaps the nicest man that Marceline has ever met and at some points she’s almost glad that her twelve week anger management prison sentence is as long as it is. It helps, it really does. It helps to talk about her dad. Hunson is overbearing and honestly a bit of a wreck and even though Marceline loves him and she’s pretty sure that he loves her more than anything else in the world sometimes she just needs to vent and Simon Petrikov is happy to be her outlet for that. It’s his job, after all.

Even after six weeks of regular sessions Marceline feels so much less angry and she’s glad, she really is. Her normal therapist leaves for a holiday and doesn’t come back but Marceline doesn’t really mind. Simon basically serves that role anyways. She learns that he’s the school counselor generally, not just for anger management, and she finds it strange that it’s never occurred to her before. Time is a silly thing, she supposes. She resolves to continue seeing him after her anger management slash jail time is over.

Other than anger management hell, Marceline’s fourth grade is uneventful. She draws and she plays music and she thinks and she writes. She’s started jotting down her philosophical thoughts and her problems and she’s made a bit of a habit of talking to Simon about them every week. She settles into a comfortable routine. She’s happy. She connects with her dad, chilling on the couch with a movie in the background, playing cards and telling jokes. Marceline Abadeer is content and it feels like she’s on top of the world.

She dreams of her mother the night before she turns ten. It’s a pleasant dream - she’s six, and her mother is telling her about how she and Marceline’s dad met. It’s a nice story, and little Marceline chuckles in her mother’s lap. She begins singing a song, Everything Stays, and Marceline rolls around in bed. The song continues, but the scene begins to shift, and she’s sitting there in the trailer and there’s sirens and screaming and her mother’s body and Marceline wakes up in bed, sweat pouring down her face and she realizes she’s ten.

-

Marceline’s tenth birthday is nothing special. Most kids celebrate “double digits”. Marceline thinks that idea is stupid. She thinks a lot of things normal kids do are stupid and maybe that's part of why she's considered decidedly not normal but let's be real - when has she ever cared what people think. The only things that come with being ten for Marceline Abadeer is her getting a phone (finally) and a bit of a rebellious streak - she knows that's usually what teenagers do but she thinks she's got to the mental maturity where she's entitled to her own little spot of internal revolution.

This rebellious streak isn't the most pronounced thing ever - there's only so much you can do to rebel when you're ten - but Marceline tries nonetheless. She dyes her hair and while her dad's more amused than annoyed when he finds her trying (and failing) to dye it properly in the shower but in Marceline's mind it still counts. She does little things like that, and honestly she's not even sure why (she's blocked out the real reason). She just wants to piss her dad off and eventually it seems like it's working. Hunson snaps and tells her to cut it. He shouts a lot and Marceline decides to give him a break. He's trying.

Short lived rebelliousness aside, Marceline's life continues as expected - school is easy, therapy is not so easy and life is chill. It's a good time and Marceline doesn't see why Hunson has to go and ruin it. He's on edge all year, and while the rational part of her brain tells her that her father isn't plotting to ruin her good year and that perhaps it's instead bad luck and his shitty job and the rest of his life that isn't doing so great her emotional brain (that always seems to win out in these scenarios) is dead set on blaming Marceline's dad for this newfound set of issues.

It snows that year. Marceline's never seen snow before and she's of the opinion that that's a damn shame. She throws snowballs and makes a snowman and has fun with her dad and she even thinks that they might be able to get past this rough patch and be better off for it. Snow inspires joy in the little girl who hasn't had much joy recently and snow gives her the feeling that maybe someday things will work out and they'll all be ok. Snow also makes her think of death. She cries that night, thinking of her mother.

She asks her dad to tell her about her mother and Hunson is apprehensive, but he finally agrees. He says that her mother was the kindest woman he'd ever met. She was wonderful, a beacon of light and love and hope to all those who've ever met her. They met at a carnival, Hunson was five years older than she was and she was just out of college but they didn't mind - it was love at first sight. They got married after being together for a year and they lived together happily for three years. It was paradise.

But paradise was not forever and things began to go downhill. Hunson's work dragged him places and her work dragged her places and really? It was his fault but it was her fault just as much - they just weren't compatible anymore and that was ok - but then, in a moment derived not from love but from hatred, Marceline was conceived and everything changed. Hunson wasn't ready to be a parent and neither was his wife. It was a recipe for disaster and it killed their marriage. The divorce papers were on the table when Hunson woke up. He cried for hours. And Marceline, for the first time ever starts to see that maybe her father wasn't the only guilty party.

Hunson has to go to Japan for a work trip and he can't afford to bring his daughter so he hires a "live-in nanny". Marceline hates the concept immensely. At least the babysitter is nice. LSP (her real name is Elle but she insists on being called LSP) is a bit crazy and highly unpredictable but at least she takes good care of Marceline and doesn't bother her too much. She spends a lot of time on her phone and the girl she's caring for spends a lot of time in her room, with her music. She's started taking guitar lessons online and she's getting pretty good.

Ultimately the time with Hunson away comes and it goes - the rhythm of Marceline's life stays the same, with or without her parent. Summer break hits eventually and Marceline spends all her time inside, playing her guitar. Hunson says she's getting pretty good. She can't help but call him Hunson now. He doesn't feel like a father - too detached, too distant. This isn't the father she had two years ago, that she bonded with over crappy movies and card games and late nights together. He's changed and she's not sure it's for the better.

She knows it's not his fault (she's blocked out that it is) but she can't help but blame him anyways, all the variables are out of his control but she's young and she's angry and she needs someone to blame. Her logical side insists that she should stop but when has she ever listened to that half when her heart pounds so much faster than her head. School starts up and she's in the fourth grade and everything is different but really it's the same. They get to do more music and that's always upside. Sometimes Marceline forgets she's still so young. She doesn't feel young. She feels old and worn down by the world.

She's not sure when she starts planning to run away but she knows when she wants to - her birthday. It's oddly poetic. She's been seeing Simon for a while but he doesn't come back when she's in fifth grade. She hears that he's not doing too well in the head. She hopes that he's alright but all she can think about is how much she wants to get out. She doesn't have any friends here and she doesn't have any family here (that still cares about her). Things have reached a breaking point. It's no longer Marceline Abadeer. It's just Marceline.

And then she walks in on her drunk "father" eating her fries. She doesn't know what it is about this moment in particular that breaks her inside, but coming home to find Hunson weeping (he deserves to cry, her inner subconscious says) as he eats her food, not even able to acknowledge her, that's how hammered he is, that shatters Marceline right where it hurts. She packs her bag that night. She doesn't bring much - her guitar, her phone, a couple pairs of clothes and some prized possessions. She figures she can make a tiny bit of cash by playing her instrument. Marceline slips out the window that night and disappears.

-

Three months and two days after she leaves it's Marceline's birthday and she's eleven. She only knows because she sees the newspaper. She's been on the move for a long time, surviving off the little bit of money she's been able to make off her guitar. It's tough pickings and she's worried she's gonna get stabbed in the middle of the night. She hasn't slept for more than 3 hours in the last 3 days and she thinks she's going a little insane. She doesn't know where she's headed but she isn't in Night City anymore. She knows that she was declared missing but by this point she's sure the search is over. Hunson is probably a wreck and deep down she feels awful that she's done this to him but it's too late to turn back now. He knows what he did.

Marceline's been gone for three months and sixteen days when she meets Bonnibel Bubblegum for the second time. The pale preteen is holed up beneath a bridge in some town she can't remember the name of when she hears the other girl singing wistfully off a rooftop. She tries to get closer but she falls over and embarrases herself and the pink haired teenager laughs. It's the start of a beautiful friendship. Bonnie is funny and smart and Marceline's not sure what all the butterflies in her stomach mean. The two are a good match and they hit it off immediately. Bonnie doesn't ask what Marceline is doing under a bridge. The two stay up talking till late into the night. It's awesome.

Over the next few weeks Marceline and Bonnie chat nonstop over their phones - she's amazed she's been able to keep the phone at full charge, but she's found a weird cafe that has phone chargers in the town she can't bring herself to leave. She knows somebody will inevitably recognise her and she'll have to run once more to avoid going back because if there's anything she doesn't want to do it's go back. Even without the stuff she refuses to think about and locks up tight all that's left for her is a distant biological father and a dying school counselor. She hopes she's never caught. She hopes her father never sees her again.

Bonnibel Bubblegum is 12 years old and in a lot of ways she's everything Marceline isn't. She's wicked smart and has a great sense of humour. She's got bright pink hair and she's top of her class. Everyone loves her, she's the star of the show - unfortunately she'd much rather be performing science experiments or scrolling through Reddit than being the school's little miss perfect, but at this point she figures she's too far in to turn back. Marceline thinks that's stupid but instead of vocalising her feelings she just sends the other girl a meme. Bonnie is incredible and Marceline loved talking to her. It's unlike anything she's done before.

Other than her fleeting interactions with the pink haired science geek of her dreams, Marceline's life stagnates into peaceful misery. She's cold and wet and she doesn't sleep well. In a way she almost regrets running (her inner subconscious hisses at those thoughts). Maybe her father wasn't so bad (she's got it locked away). At least then she had food to eat and a place to sleep and there was the possibility that maybe, just maybe, everything would turn out ok (it wouldn't). But something in her stopped her, and she was left contemplating her mistakes under a bridge in the middle of nowhere. She misses her father (she doesn't miss Hunson one bit).

Marceline's been struggling to keep her thoughts in check - they go to wild places, she has visions of her father, drunken, hitting her and kicking her. She has dreams of lying in her room and trying to patch up her injuries. She dreams of having to use the makeup kit he got her (and she hadn't touched) when she was nine to cover up the bruises. She dreams of cutting her wrists to try and make the pain go away. She dismisses them as fever dreams, hallucinations, psychosis. Her father may have been troubled but he was a good man. He would never hurt her. The next night she dreams of the night he ate her fries, she dreams of him beating her, hitting her, before sending her away. She tells herself they're fever dreams but they're starting to feel frighteningly real.

The dreams continue for nights on end - they get more real, and they get more violent. Marceline starts to paint a picture in her mind and it's not one that she's a fan of (it's the picture of her life). After a while she's certain that it's not just a hallucination, a psychosis derived from nights under bridges and on benches, not some mechanism her mind has conjured to justify her decision to run, not just a delusion created by being out on the streets of her own volition - no, Marceline is sure that this is the truth (she finally knows). And she hates it. And it's made all the worse when life decides to punch her in the gut one last time and someone recognises her and calls the cops.

Marceline is loaded into the back of the police car and the drive back to Night City begins. It's long and she feels like a prisoner, locked behind bars, restrained, constrained, under lock and key. She feels like an inmate on a jail bus, headed to serve out a seven year sentence. Except the warden is her father (her abuser) and the prison is her former home. Hunson looks happy to see her but he's a wreck and she's terrified. She spends long nights on the rooftop, avoiding her father when he isn't working or drinking. It's summer break and in a few weeks she'll be going to middle school. Marceline knows the drill by now. Ignore everyone, make them stay away. Keep her reputation as the kid who kicked someone in the balls in third grade. Keep her reputation as a weirdo, as a creep.

Her father and her new school (she's in middle school now and she doesn't like it) makes her see a therapist. Pure misery. She's classified as unpredictable and potentially violent. She sees her chance to escape and she takes it. Marceline tells the shitty therapist her dad hired everything - the abuse, running away, the beatings. She opens her heart to the therapist and all the motherfucker does is nod and write on her stupid fucking notebook. Marceline hopes her gambit pays off. She hides from her father that night, tucked up in the tunnels she used to play in. She can only just get her head in. He doesn't even look for her. He's too busy crying while he drinks. Marceline thinks he doesn't deserve to cry. He deserves to rot in hell.

Marceline is shocked when the police knock on the front door and she lets them in and hides in her room and when she comes out she sees a cuffed Hunson being led out of the door. The sense of euphoria she feels then is immeasurable. She hasn't felt it since she sent that night talking to Bonnie and then she freezes in her seat. She ghosted her new best friend. Her stomach hurts and her head hurts and everything hurts but she tries to patch things up. She tells the other girl everything. She spills her heart out. She says sorry. She begs for forgiveness. All she gets is two little blue ticks indicating her messages have been read. Fine. Fuck her. Marceline doesn't need anyone. That's what she tells herself at least. She's not sure if she believes it.

Over the course of the year Marceline manages to go through three foster families. The first one was the Lemongrabs, two lovers who didn't get along in the slightest. They insisted on dressing Marceline up in stupid clothes and she ran away before she spent a month there with them. The next family was Mr. Pig and Mrs. Trunks, an elderly woman and her husband. They already had one child, who Marceline presumed was adopted, named Sweet Pea. It was nice, and the harmony of living with a kind family was something that Marceline hadn’t felt in a long time. But it was ultimately short-lived, as Marceline just couldn’t be content living with the family - she wasn’t sure what it was, but it didn’t feel right.

The next “family” was the best and the worst - a single man named Incendis King. He gave her plenty of love and spoilt her greatly, but she was given almost no freedoms. She was pretty sure Incendis had attachment issues, and there were pictures around the house of a girl she presumed to be his daughter. He cried a lot and eventually Marceline can’t help feeling like a replacement and she’s done with being locked up inside. She wants to be free. She wants to be her own person. And through some incredibly fortunate turn of events, she ends up being adopted by Simon Petrikov. Small word, ain’t it.

-

Her birthday is shortly after she first moves in with Simon, and twelve is a good birthday in Marceline's opinion. He tells her they’re moving when summer break comes and she’s glad. Life in Night City is shitty and she’s hated every moment of it. She knows where they are moving but she doesn’t have it in her to protest. She doesn’t want to dredge up old memories and a part of her is saying that going back will do just that but she’ll be able to cope. Marceline is a survivor. She’s always gotten past life’s hurdles and she’ll get past this one. That’s what she has to tell herself to be alright.

The rest of sixth grade is awkwardly detaching herself from the rest of her year and trying to drive everyone away. She begins to pick up on the little things about Night City, the things that she really hates about it. She ignores the fact that for once people start trying to be her friend. She’s too busy looking like the most unappealing person possible. Simon laughs when she states her intentions. He’s decided to retire from being a therapist, not trusting his slightly unwell brain to take on the traumas of children any more. He’s pursuing his other passion, the one of expeditions in the night and meetings with his university sweetheart - archaeology.

Summer break hits and when it ends Marceline will be in seventh grade. She’s definitely not ready but what does it matter? She'll get through it like she's got through it in the past. It’s jarring being back where she grew up but she knows that once Simon’s busted up RV passes the sign saying “Welcome to the City of Ooo” she thinks everything might be alright. It’s almost like her hellish vacation with her (ex-)father but this time is different for some reason. Maybe she’s matured since she was eight. Probably. Eight year old Marceline had ideas of being overly mature and self improvement fever dreams. Twelve year old Marceline cringes when she thinks about it.

After a couple weeks of peaceful bliss, Simon and Marceline start visiting schools. They're all fucking fancy private bullshit, except one. Ooo Middle School is meant to be an alright school (it's the only one she has a chance of going to). The rest of Marceline's summer is filled with reading and playing her guitar. It's pleasant. She's happy, though she supposes that doesn't mean much - her life has been a series of happy and sad since the very beginning. Stability just hasn't been Marceline's experience lately. The music she's been learning totally is though.

Marceline is immediately unimpressed by Ooo Middle School's drab buildings, uninteresting teachers and shitty technology. Simon tells her to cheer up. He suggests that maybe she'll make some friends here. Marceline is doubtful. She's never been good at making friends and she's never really wanted to either. She's perfectly content with sitting in the corner and pretending not to be on her phone while teachers ramble on about who knows what. She doesn't say that though because Simon would disapprove so instead she just nods.

First day of school she gets handed a timetable and sent on her way - it's a bit confronting, really, but she supposes that she'll just have to figure things out the hard way. Her first class of the school year is Math and she’s already bored. She breezes through the work - she’s done it before at the fancy elementary school Hunson sent her to - so she spends her time staring out the window and examining the class’s members.

Her old friend Finn is sitting in the front. He looks like he’s struggling and Marceline feels a pang of pity for him but she soon dismisses it - don’t get attached. That’s her mission. In the rest of the class, nothing stands out to Marceline - it’s just middle school kids, and she couldn’t give a fuck about them. However, as the lesson progresses one thing stands out to her - the teacher is a pushover. He can barely stand up to anyone, be it your stereotypical troublemakers or the popular kids on their phones or anyone. Soon enough, Marceline’s mind is racing as to how she can exploit this. Maybe Math won’t be so bad.

The rest of her day is unexciting - they have English next, and Marceline finds herself bored out of her mind as the teacher rambles on about sappy bullshit, so she starts carving things into the desk. She’s sure the teachers will despise her for that but she couldn’t care less. Science and History are much the same, and the day concludes with a half assed Physical Education lesson that Marceline ignores. Such is life, and that's what middle school is going to be for her.

As the year goes on, Marceline starts pushing things even further - messing with teachers, fucking around with people and generally not giving a shit about what other people tell her to do. She starts cultivating an image of a bad girl, a troublemaker, someone to avoid. Her rumour spreading skill has increased considerably and by October schoolyard legends are running around the corridors, of her getting into fights and getting into trouble. Things are working perfectly.

Simon isn’t exactly overjoyed that this is what she’s chosen to be seen as, but he’s glad that at least she hasn’t got into any real fights yet. He figures that he may as well let her be a teenager - she’ll grow up eventually. Marceline gets a detention eventually, and he’s of the opinion that it’s long overdue. She almost ditches it but some strong words from her adoptive father slash caretaker lead to her sitting in a classroom with a bunch of other kids and wishing that she could be anywhere but here.

It’s in her detention that Marceline realises that Bonnibel Bubblegum is here. At her school. In the same room as her. And she gets the same butterflies she had a year ago when she last met the distinctively pink haired 12 year old, the same fluttery feeling and the same happiness that can’t be traced to any specific source. Bonnie doesn’t seem like the kinda person to get put in detention, but she doesn’t dare ask her former friend. She just sits on her phone while the teacher sleeps.

Bonnibel glares at Marceline when she leaves the room and oh Glob her heart is burning and she feels like she’s on fire and she’s definitely got a crush on the pink haired nerd. Marceline has never exactly cared about what people think of her but that all changes when she realises she wants Bonnie to like her (deep down she knows that she’s always cared what people think about her, they’ve just always thought things she approves of)

School continues but now there’s a wildcard in Marceline’s life and it’s not one she can prank or scare away. To distract herself from Bonnie, Marceline decides to get herself a boyfriend. Ash Bartholomew is one of those kids whose bad just for the sake of it and the two briefly go out. It’s kinda sweet for a while but then Ash calls her Marcy and he starts trying to take control of her and things go downhill. The details are bloody but it ends with Ash almost hospitalised and Marceline in detention (he totally deserved it). She doesn’t see Bonnibel there and her heart cracks a little

-

Thirteen year old Marceline gets a new amp for her birthday and she takes it as a good omen. It’s totally kickass and she’s ready to keep jamming on. Life is good. School is... not so good. The teachers have started to crack down on her rebellion and while most of the students are flat out terrified of her she’s unable to be as risky as she normally would. And she’s still got a crush on Bonnie, because of course she does.

She visits the cemetery her mother is buried in and she cries. It’s the worst she’s ever felt (that’s a lie). She lays a single flower on her mother’s grave and resolves to visit at least once a month. Marceline owes that to the woman who raised her. She’s started keeping a diary and she writes that down. If she’s going to stick to one thing it’s that. She’s done trying to forget. She’s done trying to get over it. 

Marceline’s New Year’s resolution is to do better in school and she intends to do it - her grade is barely passing and she hates it. Yeah, being a teenage edgelord and all is fun but she doesn’t want to get fucked over because of it. So she studies and she’s bored but it’s worth it. Simon rewards her with a night watching shitty horror movies on the couch of their cheapo apartment. They eat popcorn and stay up till 2. It’s incredible.

Life goes on. Marceline’s grade goes up and she’s happy about it. She stops getting detentions and although she’s still got her reputation she’s mellowed out a bit - what’s the point of being a jackass for no reason? She continues to pine over her unrealistic crush and Bonnibel continues to hate her. She continues to not have any friends. There’s nothing new. It’s just life. And sometimes that’s the best thing for your life.

Summer break is approaching fast and Marceline finds herself making an unexpected friend. She’s got a free period on Thursday afternoons and to her absolute surprise she finds Finn Mertens (!!), golden boy of the school, ditching class. The two begin to chat and reminisce and Marceline finds herself getting along with him surprisingly well. They exchange phone numbers and agree to keep in touch over the break, and Marceline is pretty satisfied with that outcome.

Summer break rolls around once again and Marceline finds herself inviting Finn over for a jam session after a couple weeks of chatting. He insists on inviting his brother, Jake, who Marceline barely remembers but Finn assures her he’s cool, and for once in his life the younger of the Mertens brothers is correct. Jake is a good dude and he plays the viola which goes along surprisingly well with Finn’s beatboxing and her guitar. For the first time since Kindergarten Marceline has friends and it’s so much nicer than she remembers.

They meet up like that a couple of times, and Marceline learns more about the Merten Brothers. Jake is verging on 16 and he’s wicked cool, and his girlfriend Lady is too. The two get along incredibly well and Marceline feels like she fits into their dynamic quite well. Jam days are some of the best days and they do it over and over again. She also learns their parents are dead, which breaks her heart. She doesn’t know how to respond. She can understand the pain but she can’t confront it. They don’t stay on that line of questioning for very long. 

The fun can’t last forever though, and soon enough eighth grade comes and punches Marceline in the face - school work is harder than ever and she has to struggle to keep up. She and Finn start hanging out, and he begins to move away from his “friends” when they make fun of him for spending time with the girl they call a vampire. Marceline snorts loudly when she hears Finn continue to call them his friends. The two of them carve out a little niche, and it’s nice.

If there’s one part of her life that gets even worse than her schoolwork it’s her crush on Bonnibel Bubblegum. Puberty comes swinging in full and Marceline can’t help but resist staring at the girl. Like some shitty fanfic, the two are assigned lab partners in science and Marceline isn’t sure how she’ll be able to do anything other than blush and stumble over her words. Luckily Bonnibel is too focused on her experiments to pay any attention to Marceline other than cursory requests for equipment and aid.

Simon has a very strange run in with his ex-fiance and he tells Marceline about it, who learns a lot of things about her guardian in that conversation. She quietly lets him know that she doesn’t give a shit if he dates, and after a (fully expected) short scolding of her potty mouth, he smiles and says that he’s glad. Betty and Simon go out a few nights afterward and Marceline meets her caretaker’s ex.

Betty Grof is a very strange person and Marceline’s pretty damn sure they’ll get along very well. She’s eccentric and she’s enthusiastic and she’s passionate and she’s a damn good singer and those are all things Marceline can relate to in a person. Simon and Betty’s romance continues on, and it almost fades into being a background normalcy. It’s nothing new, and it’s comfortable.

Finn turns 14 a couple months before Marceline does and he has a small celebration. Marceline meets his oldest brother, Jermaine, who seems fine. The birthday boy, Jake and Marceline rock out afterwards though and it’s a lot of fun. The day afterwards, Finn happily comes to school with a slightly shy redhead in tow, who introduces herself as Phoebe, and as Finn’s girlfriend. Phoebe seems nice, but Marceline can’t help but be distracted.

All this talk of romance and relationships gets her thinking about Bonnibel once again. She knows the other girl is straight and it breaks her heart. Little miss perfect, as she once described herself, seems like she hates Marceline’s guts and the pale troublemaker has no idea why - it bugs her more than anything else and it’s the one sore spot in her otherwise semi-picturesque life. And the science lessons aren’t making anything better.

Marceline’s birthday is soon and in preparation she goes on a getaway with Finn and Jake for the weekend - Simon only barely approves. The trio continue to play and make music and Jake suggests they start a band. Marceline thinks this is a great idea and they manage to convince Finn. They argue a little over the band name - Finn suggests “Best Friends in the World”, which the other two immediately shoot down, Marceline wants it to be called something spooky (obviously the best option) and Jake just wants to vibe. They end up getting distracted and looking at memes all afternoon. It’s fun

-

It’s the day after Marceline’s fourteenth birthday that she learns her best friend’s other best friend is her crush. At first she’s scared there may be romantic implications but Finn reassures her that anything like that was cleared up long ago. Oh yeah. Finn knows about Marceline’s crush now - he finds out when she forgets that the two of them are in a discord call and he comes back from the toilet. Not the greatest way to come out as bi to your best friend, but what’s done is done.

Finn tells her that he’ll ask Bonnie to hang out with them and she immediately tells him not to - Bonnibel Bubblegum hates Marceline and she doesn’t see that changing anytime soon. Finn is extremely dubious but he begrudgingly agrees. He always was stubborn. Marceline hopes he doesn’t invite Bonnie anyways. She’s not ready to face her crush in a context other than awkward lab partners or bumping into each other in the hallways.

In class the next day Bonnibel socially interacts with Marceline and she immediately suspects foul play. Her heart is racing but she tries her hardest to play it cool and collected. Bonnie asks her about Finn, Marceline shrugs and makes a bad joke. The candy themed teen rolls her eyes but Marceline is (barely) socially adept enough to pick up on the fact that she found it funny. Hey, maybe there’s hope for her crush on Bonnibel, but that’s a big maybe.

The still unnamed band records that day and Marceline sings like she’s never sung before. She's passionate and the song is directed at one person in particular. It's called Just Your Problem and although she thinks it needs a backing track or something she's still damn happy with it. Jake loves the song. Finn knows exactly what it's about and throws Marceline a look that says "this is not the emotionally mature thing to do". She shoots him a look that says "what do you know about emotional maturity" and he shrugs and the conversation is over.

Jake's sound editing skills are phenomenal and he adds a little techno sounding backing track using a homebrew software known as BMO. He says Finn's friend Bonnibel cooked it up for him and she's much better at this than he is. Marceline feels a pang in her heart but she doesn't say anything. The song comes out great and Jake jokingly suggests they release their first single - "Untitled Music Band presents Just Your Problem". That gets a hearty chuckle out of Marceline. 

Sick jams and sick songs aside, Marceline's school life seems to be improving somewhat, with her grades noticeably picking up as the summer draws closer and her reputation as the school's bad girl as cemented as ever. She hopes. The whispers she hears don't help. Some of them are so bad she doesn't want to say them even in her head. Who knew her school was so fucking homophobic. Maybe high school will be better (it won't).

Eventually summer break comes crashing down on her head and it finally sinks in that she's about to be in high school and there's no way she's ready and she ends up having a panic attack in her room. Luckily Simon is able to calm her down. His relationship with Betty is going great and he discreetly tells Marceline that he's planning to propose (again). She's certainly excited. Betty feels like family after this long and Marceline thinks that this is long overdue. Simon ruffles her hair and tells her that she doesn't know much about being an adult.

Marceline has grown her hair out and she's kept it that way. It's nice. The rest of her summer holiday she chats with her friends, practices her music and scrolls through memes - a teenager's perfect life. She sends Jake a couple solos to maybe edit at some point and eventually he sends them back. Marceline still wonders how he works his magic but doesn't dare ask. After all, a magician never reveals his secrets, and she assumed sound editing is pretty much the same thing.

High school is certainly a new experience to Marceline, but to her surprise it's really not that different. The work is harder, sure, but that's to be expected. There's no massive jump up in complexity and Marceline is honestly surprised. Sure, her grade is no longer top dog and they're back to being bottom of the pack but she doesn't really care. Ultimately life doesn't change much. These past few years have been unusually stable. Ever since she moved to Ooo. It makes her slightly uncomfortable, like the calm before a storm, but she dismisses it as paranoia. As Marceline matures so does her crush on Bonnie. Like fine cheese. She tells this to Finn and he snickers. He’s turned 15 by this point and he’s grown up fast. He tells her that he met his biological dad over the summer holidays. He was apparently a jackass. Marceline hasn’t had a good experience with father figures in the past and she comforts Finn over it. He starts talking about his girlfriend, Phoebe, and she makes fun of him. He snorts and calls her a hypocrite and she can’t really argue with that.

A couple weeks later she gets a late night Discord call from Finn. She dubiously accepts and finds herself comforting her best friend having a panic attack at 1 AM. It’s not fun. He tells her that he really fucked up. It takes a while for her to wrangle it out of him but she’s able to figure out it's something to do with his (potentially ex-)girlfriend Phoebe. It takes another forty minutes for her to get the whole story out of the boy, and it includes a lot of crying. A whole lot of crying.

Turns out that Finn messed up real bad and faked a letter from local jackass Gunther to get him and Phoebe to fight, in order to get back at Gunther. Phoebe found out and was (very understandably) pissed. She breaks it off with Finn and Marceline bluntly tells him that this is his fault. He agrees. She then tells him that she (or probably Phoebe for that matter) would have definitely beat Gunther up if Finn asked. Marceline concludes by telling him to apologise to Phoebe and that she’s going the fuck to sleep.

Finn talks to Phoebe a couple days later and while they both agree that it’s over between the two of them he apologises profusely and the two remain friends. Marceline for one is glad. It’s nice having another person around to hang out with and Phoebe is absolutely badass. The trio hangs out under the big tree near the back of the school, chatting on a group chat despite being literally next to each other, and sometimes Jake (and very occasionally his girlfriend Lady) stops by to chat.

Marceline and Bonnibel are matched up as lab partners (again!) and the former is convinced that the school administration is playing a cruel joke on her heartstrings. High school Bonnibel seems slightly less dedicated to being perfect and slightly more amenable to Marceline. Not by much, but there used to be a sense of open hostility and now it’s more a comfortable indifference. Marceline wants to apologise more than anything for whatever it is she’s done (she’s not even sure) but she can’t bring herself to. At least not in this setting.

So she continues to rot in the uncomfortable realisation that this is more than just a simple crush and she’s not ready to accept that. It’s a shitty place to be but what can she do about it. Well, she knows what she can do but she doesn’t have the balls to do it. Well, she wouldn’t have balls anyways but metaphors are fucking weird. So for the rest of Marceline’s life as a fourteen year old she sits there waiting for an opportunity to present itself. It never does.

-

Marceline’s fifteenth birthday happens and her group of friends crashes at her place that night - her room isn’t that big but she’s able to fit two mattresses on the floor between the couch and her bed. Finn and Jake arrive together, and Phoebe comes over about half an hour later. They play music and card games and spend the night watching bad horror flicks and laughing at them. It’s a great time. She quietly comes out to Jake and Phoebe and admits her crush. They laugh at her but it’s all in good fun.

Finn finally convinces her to let him invite Bonnibel to hang out with them and it goes better than expected. The pink haired princess walks up to the tree with an unimpressed look on her face and Marceline, sitting in the nook of the tree, cracks a sarcastic joke, which seems like it’s setting them up for disaster, but it doesn’t go in that direction. It turns out that Bonnie has shed her perfect persona and is focusing on school as opposed to being the most popular girl in the school, and she seems grateful that she’s got people to hang out with.

Over the next week they get to know each other better and Bonnie becomes more and more ingrained in the friend group. Turns out that not only is she able to make sound editing software like a boss, she can also edit like a boss, somehow even better than Jake, and she becomes in charge of Currently Untitled Band’s sound design. She starts attending jam sessions and it’s a fun time. Marceline is somehow getting worse at concealing her staring.

Their discord chat now has five members (other than the many bots Finn insists on adding) and the tree has four inhabitants and the ecstasy Marceline feels is insurmountable. She might finally have a chance but that’s besides the point - simply spending time with Bonnibel Bubblegum, the object of her affection, her crush of several years, causes her heart to race, butterflies to flutter around in her stomach and her face to break out into a smile. It’s painstakingly obvious and Finn points this out just as Bonnie joins the voice call - Marceline has to think quickly to avoid that one.

That night Marceline apologises to Bonnibel, for ghosting her, for being a jackass, for everything. Bonnie laughs and tells her that she never hated the pale haired girl - sure, there was some distaste here and there, but it was mostly peer pressure and indifference. When addressed about the topic of the ghosting fiasco, Bonnie seems uncomfortable. She doesn’t want to talk about it. She’s about to say something about her family but she shuts up before she gets to it and Marceline is worried for her. She doesn’t say anything though.

Marceline and Bonnie stay up talking long into the night and it’s immensely pleasant. She learns that Bonnibel has a brother, Neddy, and the two have lived with their uncle and aunt since Bonnie was three. Her aunt is nice enough, and while her brother is a little different Bonnie says that it’s just the way he is. Her uncle on the other hand, Bonnibel doesn’t want to talk about him. She’s defensive and Marceline accepts that. Family members can be shitty like that. She decides not to read into it any more, as much as something in her is telling her that she should.

Marceline’s first year of high school is simple bliss - school is easy and she has a friend willing to help her with homework on demand, so her life is spent relaxing with friends, playing pranks on people and pissing the teachers off. Turns out at Ooo High School they don’t really care what you do if you get the work done, so Marceline exploits that to the utmost extent. Bonnie disapproves but whatcha gonna do, and internally Marceline thinks she’s a bit of a hypocrite.

See, the thing is, Bonnibel Bubblegum is the smartest person Marceline has ever met. Marceline does well, but Bonnie does more than well. She has straight As and she probably shouldn’t be at Ooo High School, but money is short. The Bubblegums didn’t recover well from the lawsuit on Candy Corp and things simply aren’t doing great. So Bonnie is stuck in a downtrodden, underfunded high school while her academic genius is stifled. Moral of the story is, she finishes all the work very quickly and scrolls through memes all through the lesson. Hypocrite.

It’s two months till summer break and it’s Bonnie’s birthday. She invites the whole gang over, even Phoebe, who she has fought with multiple times in the past. It’s a hell of a time. They indulge in Bonnibel’s nerdy board games and her strange obsession with noir and it’s the most fun Marceline’s had in a while. As they fall asleep that night, in bean bags in Bonnie's basement, there’s a smile on Marceline’s face and the comfort that comes from being near her best friends in the world is immeasurable.

Summer break hits Marceline like a sucker punch and honest to Glob she’s shocked at the difference it makes. She’s not waking up at 7 in the morning she’s waking up at 9. She doesn’t have to endure hours of being bored, instead she gets to enjoy days of memes and band practice. She stays up playing games with Finn and Phoebe and Simon doesn’t get mad at her (for once). They record songs and she sings and she dances with Bonnie and it’s amazing.

Speaking of Simon, he finally proposed to Betty a few months ago and their wedding is coming up. Marceline is absolutely hyped and when it comes a month into summer break she’s nothing short of ecstatic. She doesn’t cry (she cries a lot) but she’s very happy and it’s amazing and incredible and Marceline has started being self conscious of how much she uses positive adjectives. She tells herself she’s just very excitable and while that may detract from her rebellious bad girl persona she’s pretty sure that’s dead by this point.

Her sophomore year is finally here and Marceline is surprised at how low the jump in difficulty is. She can’t tell if she’s smart (she seriously doubts it), the work is easy (perhaps, but she’s not sure) or they’re just preparing her incorrectly for the SATs (Marceline has plenty of negative thoughts on the curriculum). Nonetheless, it’s fairly easy and Marceline finds herself falling into the same rhythm she had last year. She doesn’t have class with either Bonnie or Finn, which is annoying, but at least Phoebe is in her Visual Arts class.

Marceline has continued visiting the cemetery, sometimes with Finn in tow, and she’s incredibly surprised when she sees Bonnie there. It’s a somber moment and the two barely talk but she feels like she’s just been exposed to a whole new layer of sadness she didn’t even know about in her best friend. It makes her introspective. She almost forgets to leave a flower at her mother’s grave.

Somewhat relatedly, Marceline really wants to ask Bonnibel out. Unfortunately, she doesn’t know if the other girl even likes the female gender (it keeps her up at night), and she hasn’t had an opportune time to ask. She’s considered asking a couple times, but she really doesn’t know. Eventually she decides that the best thing to do is to formulate and execute a master plan, and hope to Glob that it works out. It’s the best she’s got. 

Her plan is simple. She’ll nonchalantly come out to Bonnie during one of their frequent 1am voice calls and hope that Bonnie responds in turn (if she is in the LGBTQ+ community - Marceline understandably hopes that she is). If that doesn’t work, she’ll try to subtly prompt it, and if all else fails she’ll flat out ask. Okay, maybe that last one isn’t a great idea. Her plan was formulated at 3am, like all “good plans”, and it may have a couple holes. She hopes it works out, glaring problems notwithstanding.

She tells Bonnie she’s bi and the other girl chuckles and tells Marceline that it’s pretty obvious. She then tells Marceline that she’s a lesbian. And that she has a crush on her. And Marceline dead ass nearly passes out. Needless to say, that’s one of Marceline’s favourite nights of the year, and when she shows up at school the next day with her all new girlfriend (!!!!!!!!!!) the hopelessly in love new couple is met with a chorus of “finally”, Marceline’s heart skips a beat.

-

She celebrates quietly for her birthday, a getaway with her closest friends. It’s sweet and close and merry and holy shit are Marcy and Bonnie teased a lot. It’s actually quite funny but Marceline would never admit that to Finn or Jake or anyone. They reminisce on the past and the future, and Bonnie tells her girlfriend about a very distant memory of a pale, black haired girl who clung to her mother and was fixated on her hair, which was pink, even when she was that young (apparently Bonnie’s parents were weird). Marceline blushes.

Finn’s got a new girlfriend, Hunter, and while she doesn’t attend for obvious reasons he tells his friends all about her and honestly? She sounds really cool. Yeah, she’s a bit quirky and apparently sometimes talks like she’s talking to her teammates in League (girl somehow manages to be super connected with nature and play serious esports. Crazy) but overall she seems like a cool person and a good fit for Finn. 

The group of five chats for hours. They manage to coerce Bonnibel into playing games with them and it turns out not only is she fucking wicked at shooters, she can also make the most incredible Minecraft creations any of them have ever seen. They fall asleep at 4am, Bonnie’s head on Marcy’s lap, Phoebe on a beanbag and the Mertens brothers in a heap on the floor. The hotel room they rented has a bed but they willfully neglect to use it - what’s the point.

They’ve got one day left in their little holiday and Finn decides that the best course of action is to go to the beach. Marceline is not a fan of the sun or the water and not so politely declines (Finn calls her a vampire), so of course they drag her along anyways. She sits on the beach under a parasol until Bonnie in a bikini persuades her into the water. They end up kissing under the waves. Jake gets knocked into them and makes a sexual joke. Everyone laughs. Marceline decides that maybe the beach isn’t so bad.

The weekend is a big hit and they all go back to school happier. Bonnie and Marcy have been dating for a little over a month and they couldn’t be having a better time. Marceline loves the other girl and for the first time in her life she’s not afraid to say it. It’s perfect and it doesn’t feel like anything could ruin it. But, of course, her life is an endless series of ups and downs, and the kids at her school beg to differ.

Marceline has never really struggled with bullying, her “tough girl” persona has driven most of that off. Sure, there’ve been a few slurs here and there (very upsetting), but nothing that bad. Because of this, the latter half of sophomore year is a whole new experience for her. She has no idea how to deal with it, but the expectation she’s gathered from too many nights reading bad fanfic is that it’s not gonna be fun.

It starts off fairly tame. Some whispers in the hallways, some hurtful text messages, nothing really that big. Marcy can deal with it. She’s got a support network of friends. She’ll be alright because at this point she doesn’t feel like anything could bring her down from the high she’s on right now (not literally. Simon would probably murder her if she tried that) and she’s got a beautiful supportive girlfriend who can get her through anything. And then Bonnibel’s family drags her on a trip to Europe for two months. Great. The epitome of fun.

The day after Bonnie leaves things immediately go downhill. Bonnibel Bubblegum may not be the school’s little miss perfect princess anymore but she’s still got an aura of classroom royalty around her. An aura of “mess with me and I’ll ruin you”. Marceline, on the other hand, has nothing. She’s soft and squishy and an obvious target for the homophobic shitheads that apparently her school has a lot of. It’s hell. Marceline wants summer break to come faster than anything.

She’s called slurs in the corridors and in her classrooms, and it feels like they’re cutting daggers into her skin. Marceline never thought she cared about what people thought of her but she definitely does. Things just start escalating from there. Somehow multiple slurs are carved into her locker, and when she opens it she finds that all her stuff has been stolen. Because of course it has. 

The school becomes a hellscape for Marceline. She’s only safe at the tree, with her friends, and even then she finds hatred carved into it. The apathy of the teachers is finally starting to have consequences and it’s bad. She feels like she’s in the 1800s with the way people treat her. You’d think these fucking homophobes had never seen a gay person before. It’d almost be comedic the level high schoolers go to make other people’s lives absolute misery if she wasn’t the target of their idiocy.

Things come to a very unfortunate, no, a very fucking shitty climax. Marceline’s day starts as usual - she comes into school late, she avoids her friends, their relations falling apart, she hides in the corner of the classroom and tries to stay out of the corridors. Her fatal mistake is leaving her guitar in the instrument storeroom - she’s got Music that day, so she doesn’t really have a choice, but it’s still something she should have foreseen.

That being said, it doesn’t make it any less world shattering when she finds her guitar, her beautiful precious guitar, the one good thing that her father ever did for her, her pride and joy, smashed on the ground, with slurs carved into it. She can’t move. She can’t think of anything other than rage. She’s paralysed by her fury and she’s broken and she can’t do anything. 

That night Marceline cuts her wrists. She hasn’t done it in seven years, but she still remembers exactly how. Her finger doesn’t slip once, even as the rest of her body shakes, and as the red blood spills out she feels gratified. She cuts again the next night, and then again the night after that. It becomes some sort of addiction. She knows it's not healthy but she can't help herself. She hasn't opened Discord since Bonnibel left. She's barely talked to Finn and Jake and Phoebe since Bonnibel left. Hell, she's barely talked to Simon or Betty since Bonnibel left. She's become a social recluse.

She receives a text from Bonnie. It's long and none of it is good news. She won't be back until just before the beginning of summer break. She's tried to contact Marcy over discord but it hasn't been fruitful. She hopes she's ok. Marceline can't bring herself to properly reply. She doesn't deserve to feel happy again so she sends a token reply and turns off her phone. Her life returns to its stagnation of misery and suffering. She's pretty sure her guitar is in a garbage dump now but she can't bring herself to care.

Marceline's life is hell on Earth. She knows her friends have tried to contact her, to talk to her, to see if she's ok but she doesn't have it in her to respond. Her only escape is the feeling over her blood trickling down her wrist. She doesn't care anymore. She's pretty sure her friends hate her (they don't). She's pretty sure Simon and Betty hate her (they don't). She's pretty sure that she'll never do anything in life and she's just a useless f- her hand shakes and she falls to the floor. She's lost track of what time in the year it is.

And that is how Bonnibel Bubblegum ends up returning to Ooo only to walk in on her best friend, her girlfriend, the love of her life, bleeding out unconscious on the floor. She screams and Simon and Betty run in and there's too much going on at once - there's a razor in Marcy's hand and she can see the scars oh Glob there are so many scars so many scars so many scars and then Betty calls an ambulance and there are sirens whirring outside and she can't breathe and everything is awful and she hates her uncle and her aunt and she just wants Marceline to not be dead. Marceline is rushed to the hospital and they save her, barely. She's put on suicide watch and diagnosed with major depression. Bonnibel isn't sure but she thinks Simon might be suing the school for misconduct and allowing harmful behaviours. She knows one thing for certain - Ooo High School will be a different place after summer break, and it is.

Marceline does not return to school for some time but she manages to start reconnecting with her friends. The bonds she forged were weakened but they were not broken and she reopens Discord for the first time in months and finds the messages of worry and pain and she breaks down into tears. When she returns to school as a Junior things seem different. She can tell several kids have been expelled, and she knows that the teacher's attitude has certainly changed. The school isn't good, and she doubts she'll ever feel safe there again, but it's getting better, and it gets better as the school year continues.

-

Marceline's seventeenth birthday is a somber one. Her family and friends are still recovering from her failed suicide attempt and she's still recovering from depression and nobody is really having a good time. They watch a movie and snuggle on the couch and Marceline feels safe, if only somewhat. She still doesn't feel entirely comfortable at school, despite the principal's pledge that everything will be different. Some things you just never recover from. Marceline thinks a lot about her life nowadays. It's certainly filled with more suffering then is normal or advised. Her mother, her father, the bullying, it all seems so crazy that it could happen in such a short space of time, and she won't even be 18 for another year. 

She spends a lot of time with Bonnie, being a normal couple, pretending that she isn't scarred. They go to the movies and laugh at the bad jokes and somehow even worse editing. They go out to fancy restaurants and dine on fine meals. Bonnie wears a suit and Marcy very nearly faints when she sees it. The other girl snickers at her misfortune. Marceline does not think this is fair so for their next date she specifically goes shopping and gets a dress she knows Bonnie will find incredibly attractive. Her plan works splendidly. Marceline isn't used to the freedom of spending but Bonnie turns 18 in a couple months so her uncle has started letting her have a bit of the fortune that's been left to her. It's probably not legal but Marcy doesn't mind (she doesn't think about the implications.

Speaking of Bonnibel's uncle, Marcleine has decided that she doesn't like him one bit. He's an asshole, for one, a colossal one really. She's pretty sure he's some degree of homophobe, and he just generally gives her bad juju (Finn said it first and it stuck). She's only interacted with him a couple times but she hasn't enjoyed it any of the times and what Bonnie has said about her uncle hasn't exactly been helping that image improve. As far as Marceline is concerned, Gumbald Bubblegum is the biggest jackass ever to live and she hates him already. Such is life. Is she being too judgemental? Probably. Does she give a fuck? Not in the slightest.

However, her own feelings about the man aside, when Bonnie says that she wants to come out to her family sooner rather than later she still doesn't think it's a good idea. She knows Neddy is cool but the impression Marcy has gathered from the rest of the family does not paint a picture of acceptance and kindness. She voices these concerns but the heir to the Bubblegum family doesn't budge. She's made up her mind and Marceline knows her well enough to tell that there's no changing it once that's done. Oh well. She may as well try. Bonnie decides the best time to do it is over dinner and she asks Marcy to tag along for moral support.

Turns out that her suspicions were correct. Gumbald prefaces dinner with a rant about how he hopes his perfect niece has not been "tainted" by the influence of certified bad kid Marceline. Dinner is awkward the whole way, although luckily it seems that Gumbald is stupid enough to assume that they are just friends. Marceline is well behaved and quiet and she makes small talk and she acts exactly how she'd think he'd want her to act. He criticises her ruthlessly nonetheless and calls her an uncultured young lady. Bonnie is barely able to conceal a laugh at that. She also learns that Bonnibel's aunt and Gumbald's wife, Lolly, passed away a few years back.

Dinner draws to a close and they hold hands under the table and share a look. It's time. Bonnie takes a deep breath in and says she has something to announce. Gumbald looks up eagerly, seemingly expecting it to be college or some shit like that. Bonnie says it quickly. It's as simple as "I like girls. I'm a lesbian. Marceline is my girlfriend". Neddy looks clueless. Gumbald is fuming. Marceline gets on the defensive but she keeps it in and the last remnants of dinner are awkward and uncomfortable. Fun old uncle Gumbald doesn't even dignify Marceline with a goodbye. She doesn't give him one either. The passive aggressiveness radiating off him and the girl who "corrupted his daughter" is immense.

Marceline is worried about Bonnie that night. Gumbald is posh and prissy but Marceline has enough experience with the rich (read: Hunson) to tell that he's barely containing an avalanche of hatred, spite and bitterness. She hopes that someday it erupts like a volcano and his head comes off in the blast. The man is a colossal asshole and it's as simple as that. The badly hidden homophobia doesn't help improve her opinion of the man.

Marceline's fears prove founded for once because she knows what concealer over bruises looks like and it's all over Bonnie's face and skin. She confronts her about it at lunch and Bonnie comes undone. She tells Marceline about everything and she's horrified as to how far back is stretches. Bonnie cries a lot and Marcy is happy to be that shoulder for her to cry on. Things are bad at home for Bonnie. He hasn't beaten her like this before but he's verbally abused her for….well, almost her entire life. There's a lot to unpack and Marcy thinks that the other teen needs to see a psychiatrist but that's not here nor there.

Unfortunately they don't have enough evidence to put Gumbald away so Bonnie moves semi permanently to live with Marceline and Simon and Betty. At first the Petrikovs are dubious of letting them sleep in the same room, let alone the same bed but Marcy assures her adoptive parents that all activities will be SFW. Simon doesn't fully understand the meaning of it but decides that he trusts Marceline enough to not do anything unsavoury in nature, and considering Bonnie's situation they agree. After that, things get better. Bonnie will turn 18 in a month and Gumbald doesn't try to stop her from leaving. Marceline's sure he believes she's some demon child now.

Jake is headed to college that year so they see him considerably less, but his college is only a twenty minute drive away and they're able to still get jam sessions in occasionally. Speaking of driving, Marceline finally gets her licence and the freeing feeling that comes with being able to get around my herself is inmense. There's a surprising amount of pleasure to be gained from simply driving around the City of Ooo and the surrounding scattered farmland. Needless to say, there's plenty of good times to be had with her new vehicular mode of transport.

Bonnie turns 18 and they get the gang together once more, just before the summer break, for a day of fun, board games, movies, board games, more fun, and did she mention board games? They play through a good portion of Bonnie's selection - from Pandemic to Exploding Kittens to Settlers of Catan, they play all sorts of games and despite Marceline usually not enjoying board games all that much it's a lot of fun when she's playing it with people she loves do much. They also finally meet the elusive Hunter, who drops Finn off at the apartment. She's almost exactly how Finn described her, and they share a passionate kiss before she leaves.

Summer break rolls around and as a gift Simon gives her a new guitar. It must have cost him a fortune but it's infinitely better than her old one and she finally feels at home again with her music. She shows Bonnie some of her older stuff and she chuckles, especially at Just Your Problem. They joke and laugh and live in a state of bliss. Marceline loves it. She finds herself loving a lot of things lately. She feels like she's mellowed out after all her trauma. She's done being a bad girl, she's done causing trouble. She just wants to spend time with her lovely beautiful amazing girlfriend and relax.

Of course something goes wrong. Marceline drives Bonnie to Gumbald's house when she realises that she forgot some notes she'll need if she wants her grade to be high enough so she can get into the colleges she wants to go to. She waits outside anxiously and when her love doesn't come out immediately she's not afraid to go in, although she sends a message to Finn first - i"f I don't respond to this text in two minutes get your ass over to Bonnie's old house". What she is afraid of is the sight that greets her as she busts down the door - the love of her life lying bloodied and beaten as her uncle continues to wallop on her unconscious form. It's like a scene out of a horror movie and Marceline screams.

She leaps at Gumbald and wallops him, slamming the older man into the wall. Surprisingly though, he still has some fight left in him and he heaves Marceline off him, getting up and attempting to kick her while she's still on the floor. Marcy rolls away and gets up, sizing Gumbald up before he lunges at her, missing and slamming into a glass cabinet that shatters into a million pieces. Convinced that the threat is dealt with, she's in the process of picking up her love's unconscious form and attempting to get her out of the house when Gumbald comes at her again, kitchen knife in hand, blood trickling down his head, a manic smile stretching across his face, and runs at the young couple. Marcy tries to flee but she's not fast enough and…

There's a bang and Gumbald falls to the floor. A very traumatised looking Finn stands in the doorway, hand shaking as he holds the pistol. It falls to the floor and he calls 911. The police and ambulance arrive soon. Bonnie is taken to hospital and Finn is temporarily put in police custody. The house is taped up and everything seems to be going to shit. Bonnie didn't even get the notes she wanted. However, it looks like there might be a happy ending to the situation.

Bonnie has a few broken ribs but otherwise she's alive and the injuries are mostly surface level. Marceline is just glad she's okay - the feeling of relief she gets when the doctor comes back out and gives her the good news is large scale and she lets out her breath she didn't realise she was holding. Finn gets off easy, with his older brother, Jermaine, a lawyer. He's able to argue self defense and the witness testimonies prove it. Finn did crash his car though. Over the next few weeks Gumbald's place is cleaned up and Bonnie clears the rest of her stuff out of it. She decides to get her own place with a bit of the money she inherited. It's less than expected as someone (Gumbald) had been siphoning off funds but otherwise it's fine.

The rest of summer break is uneventful. Bonnie moves into her new house. They go on a double date with Finn and Hunter. Phoebe somewhat reconciles with her father, who is coincidentally also Marceline's very short lived foster father (small world, she remarks upon learning this information). Jake stops by every once in a while and they record some new songs. Life is simple and boring and Marceline wishes it could stay this way forever. It would be so nice to simply remain in an endless state of boredom, at least when compared to what Marceline has endured over the last almost eighteen years of her life.

The time after summer break, and by extension the majority of Marceline's freshman year, is spent studying. SATs are coming up and while Marceline isn't quite as devoted as Bonnie to getting into the right university she still wants to go to a good one (ideally the same one as her love) so she studies to get her grade up. Long nights in the library or at Bonnie's place, reading through maths textbooks and reading the works of Shakespeare and wisecracking and love and honestly - she's said it before (she knows that for a fact) but for real this time, Marceline is pretty sure that she's having the best time of her life and she's the luckiest girl in the world. She's got a beautiful girlfriend she loves, wonderful and supportive friends who have supported her through thick and thin and would do it all again, a band they never got around to making and so much more. She wonders how anyone could not love her life. Her birthday approaches fast and she's amazed that a year has passed so quickly. It feels like just moments ago that she was starting high school, middle school, elementary school, they all feel so close. Marcy has been through so, so much, but on the evening before her birthday, with her pink haired girlfriend snoozing in her lap and the world at her fingertips, Marceline is happy, and she intends to stay that way.


End file.
